Web marking mechanism



March 21, 1939.

c. D. KNOWLTON WEB MARKING MECHANISM Filed Aug. 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet l" 8 QM, QM. 9M W a a g z 3 m E $1 1 B Q w QM 3 March 21, 1939. c. D. KNOWLTON WEB MARKING MECHANISM Filed Aug. 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 www,

Patented Mar. 21, 1939 WEB MARKING MECHANISM Cutler D. Knowlton, Beverly, Mass, assignor to Hoague' sprague' Corporation, Lynn, Mass, a

corporation of Massachusetts Application August 12, 1937, Serial No. 158,751

7 Claims.

--:'I-his invention relates to mechanism by, which 7 there may be applied to a web, advancing through a machine for operations upon it, suca cessive marks indicating that a definite length of web has been acted upon, and that there has been produced from such length a predetermined number of objects, for example, blanks from which boxes are to be set up.

In machines for making box-blanks, such as n that disclosed in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,988,451, Knowlton, January 22, 1935, various operations are performed upon web-material during its advance through a series of mechanisms the operations including forming la the web or webs, usually by elements carried by pa rs of rolls, and subjecting said webs to the action of other rolls which simultaneously feed forward plural layers of r the web-material.

' When the discrete blanks are delivered from the 19 machine, it is convenient, for the purpose of I bundling or otherwise arranging them in groups each containing a definite number of blanks, to mark in the web the blank-portions which correspond to the last of each group. This may be,

for example, every twelfth, Then, when the,

completed blanks are gathered from the stack produced by the machine, the desired groups may be separated under the guidance of the marks without iurther consideration. It is an object of this invention to arrange for L the production of marks of the character above mentioned by simple and effective mechanism, which, preferably, though not necessarily, may be made a part of one of the operating mechanisms of the blank-making ,machine and which, when thus arranged, adds no independently movable elements thereto. With this ,end in view, I associate with opposite rollscontacting with the webs to exert constant feeding pressure thereon,

,15) meansior rotating the rolls at different rotainc ement e the ai s e iliei ma means t redeem dln r sieemeeae iheiums qf the -rolls qu r g ,which it is ineffective, may be allowed merely to deiiectthewwebs out of their normal path. This I att a ,by'Qpr Viding the an eam d aidasses t e pe h r of which are spaced from the webs, and upon which reduced portions the marking means is arranged. Into the space thus furnished, the webs may be bent by an element of the marking means, without the formation of a mark. The 5 particular marking instrumentalities herein disclosed consist of a projection from the reduced portion of one roll and a depression upon the corresponding portion of the other roll to receive said projection when the two come into engagen ment after a predetermined number of roll-rotations. Until this registration of the two parts occurs, the engagement of the projection with the web produces only its idle deflection.

In the accompanying drawings, a single embodiment of the invention is illustrated, Fig. 1 being a broken, transverse section through a pair of feed-rolls of a blank-making machine;

Fig. 2, an end eley'ation of the difierential gearmg;

Fig. 3, an enlarged, partial, transverse section on the line III-III of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4, a similar section in the same plane as Fig. 3 but with the rolls in a difierent position, and

Fig. 5, a perspective view of a blank which has been marked by my improved mechanism.

The invention is illustrated herein as combined with an operating mechanism which may be included in the machine of the previously mentioned patent, this mechanism being oneof those by which layers of web-material from which box-blanks are to be formed are advanced through the machine for the forming operations. Of this mechanism, there are shown po r tions of a supporting frame it! in which are journaled, with their axes horizontal, a lower websupporting roll l2 and an upper pressureroll Hi, the latter being forced against the webs, ap- 40 pearing at W, by springs I 6, 1,6. The roll 12 is rotated at the desired speed by bevel-gearing l8 from 9. line-shaft 20. The webs W, as those of shell-material and lining or cover-paper with an interposed adhesive, are fed forward by these rolls. Under the influence of other mechanisms, not illustrated, the webs'will be'subjected'to'various forming operations to produce box-blanks joined in' a series at their ends, the webs finally being successively'cut along the meeting lines of ,50 the" adjacent blanks to furnish separate com- ,pleted blanksB, one of which is illustrated in Fig. 5. 'Atthe time the'stiII-conne ted blanks arrive at the rolls l2 and I4, projections b may have beenformed, these furnishing the cornerlaps. For each complete rotation of one of the rolls l2 and M, a single blank passes between them. The severed blanks are commonly received upon their edges on a conveyor in a horizontal series, from which they are removed by the operator for bundling in groups, each containing the desired number of blanks.

Considering now the features more particularly concerned with the present invention for marking, for the operators guidance, the blank terminating each group, the rolls l2 and M are shown as carrying two marking mechanisms M, M. These are arranged at the opposite ends of the rolls to produce indentations m, 'm in the outer edges of two of the corner-laps b at opposite sides of the blanks. The two marking mechanisms may be identical, and therefore but one will be described in detail. At the end of each roll is a reduced portion 30 or one of less diameter than the body of the roll. These portions furnish between them a space into which the edges of the webs extend. Attached to the portion 30' of the roll I2 is a die-block 32, in which is a depression in the form of a slot 34 lying parallel to the axis of the roll and so located that all widths of webs to be operated upon will extend over it. Secured in a groove in the portion 30 of the roll I4 is a mounting-plate 36 from which is a projection 38, its sides converging outwardly to a comparatively sharp point but being extended somewhat longitudinally of the roll. The projection is arranged to enter the slot 3% in the rotation of the rolls, and to permit it to contact with Webs of varying widths near their edges, the plate 36 is adjustable in its groove longitudinally of the axis of its roll by virtue of slot-and-screw connections 48, which fix it in place.

Were the rolls l2 and I4 to be of equal diameter and to rotate at equal speeds, the projection 38 would mesh with the slot 34 once for each turn, during which time a length of the webs corresponding to one finished blank would have passed. Under these conditions, the projection coming into engagement with the edges of the webs would force these into the slot to produce an indentation therein. As has already been pointed out, it is desired to thus mark only the blanks which terminate a group, as twelve in number. The rolls are therefore made of different diameters and have different speeds of rotation, this being efiected by differential gears 42 and 44 fast upon the journals of the rolls l2 and I4, respectively. To give the chosen groups of twelve blanks between the impressed marks, the gear 42 has forty- 'four teeth, and the gear 44, forty-eight teeth, their pitch-diameters being the same as the diameters of the rolls l2 and M, respectively. Thus, as the roll 14 is driven from its companion roll, though its peripheral speed is the same, it will lag behind in its rotation-speed to the angular extent of four gear-teeth for each turn. The precise time of registration of the projection and slot may be adjusted by joining the gear 44 to its roll-journal by slot-and-screw connections 5!], through which the angular relation between the two rolls may be varied.

Assuming an initial time when the projection 33 has entered the slot 34 to produce a mark on the webs, for the next turn of the rolls the projection will be removed circumferentially from the slot by thirty degrees, for the succeeding turn by sixty degrees, and so on, until, upon the twelfth turn, the projection and slot will again register to produce the mark. During the intermediate orinactive turns, the edges of thewebs will not receive the support of the die 32. Consequently, the projection 38 merely deflects the webs slightly,

without marking them, into the space between j the reduced portions 39, 39 of the rolls. The efiect of the projection on the webs during these idle contacts may be minimized by locating these feeding and marking rolls in the blank-making machine at a point in the series. of operating mechanisms at which the corner-laps b have been separated from the bodies of the blanks. As will be seen upon reference to Fig. 4 of the drawings, the projection 33 bends the projecting corner-laps slightly about the creases connecting them to the side-wings of the blank, without the necessity of deflecting the entire marginal portions of the webs. With the blanks marked as just described, the operator may, without counting, take uniform groups from those delivered from the machine and dispose of them in the desired manner. It should be observed that this invention adds to web-feeding means in ablank-making machine, no elements movable independently of said means, thus giving a marking mechanism of great simplicity and durability.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a marking mechanism for web-material,

opposite rolls contacting with the material to exert constant pressure thereon, means for rotating the rolls at different speeds to advance the material during the application of pressure, and marking means carried by each roll, said marking means being brought into active co-operation' into co-operationby the rotation of the rolls.

3. In a marking mechanism for web-material, a lower web-supporting roll and an upper pressure-roll contacting with the material and being of different diameters, means for rotating oneof the rolls, gears fast upon the rolls and communicating the rotation of the driven roll to the associated roll to feed the material forward, said gears having teeth differing in number, means by which one of the gears may be secured in different angular positions upon its roll, and marking means carried by each roll and moved into cooperation by the rotation of the rolls.

4. In a marking mechanism for web-material,

opposite rolls contacting with the web and having ppposite rolls contacting with the web and havin reduced end-portions, and means for rotating the rolls at difierent rotation speeds, one of the reduced portions being provided with a projection for engagement with the material and the other with a depression between the opposite sides of which the projection forces the material to produce an indentation therein.

-'7. In a marking mechanism for web-material from which are projections ,from the body of the web,ropposite rolls contacting with said body and having reduced end-portions having between them a space through which the projections travel, means for rotating the rolls at different rotation-speeds, and means carried by the rolls in the space and arranged to produce a mark upon the projections after a predetermined number of these have passed through the rolls, the intermediate projections being deflected by the marking means into the space between the reduced portions of the rolls.

CUTLER D. KNOWLTON. 

